Tuesday, April 10, 2012

What are the poetic devices in the poem "Black Woman"?

This poem, originally written in French and entitled "Femme Noir," was published in 1945, and was written by one of the leading proponents of the literary movement known as "negritude." The essential goal of "negritude" literature was to celebrate African culture and also the pride one could feel in being African. "Black Woman" is written in free verse and includes poetic devices such as personification, simile, alliteration, repetition, metaphor, enjambment, and a semantic field.
In "Black Woman," Senghor personifies Africa as a "black woman" with gentle hands, a "solemn contralto voice," and a "form which is beauty." The personification makes it easier for the reader to empathize with the speaker's feelings, as we can all appreciate the beauty of the human form. The speaker says that Africa possesses a beauty which "strikes [him] to the heart / like the flash of an eagle." The simile comparing Africa's beauty to "the flash of an eagle" implies that this beauty is intense and also majestic.
In the seventh stanza, the speaker evokes the sounds of Africa, describing the "Carved tom-tom, taut tom-tom, muttering / under the Conquerer's fingers." The tom-tom is a small drum played with the hands. The alliteration in the lines onomatopoeically suggests the quiet, persistent rhythm of the drums. There is also personification again as the drums are described as "muttering," suggesting that the drums have a life of their own, such is the vitality and vibrancy of the music.
There is also throughout the poem the repetition of the first line of the poem, "Naked woman, black woman," or a variant of the line, "Naked woman, dark woman." The nakedness of the woman, a personification of Africa, implies that she is natural and also proud to exist in her natural state. The repeated allusion to the woman's blackness, or darkness, implies that this is the fundamental characteristic and cause of her beauty.
In the sixth stanza, Senghor uses a semantic field of sensual language to describe Africa as one might describe a lover. He describes the "Firm-fleshed ripe fruit," the "savannah shuddering" and "the East Wind's / eager caresses." The effect is to intensify the impression of Africa's beauty. It's as if the speaker loses himself in contemplation of the continent's beauty.
In stanza ten, there is the metaphor "pearls are stars on the / night of your skin." This metaphor implies that the stars in the skies are there simply to decorate and enhance the beauty of Africa. This line, like many others in the poem, is also an example of enjambment, which is when one sentence continues, without a pause, over two lines. The frequent enjambment in the poem perhaps gives the impression that, just as the sentences cannot be contained within the lines, neither can the beauty of Africa be contained by language. Africa's beauty overflows. It is irrepressible and uncontainable. This same impression is also conveyed by the free verse form of the poem. There is no regularity as regards the rhythm of the poem. The stanzas are of different lengths, there is no regular syllabic meter, and there is also no rhyme scheme. As well as compounding the impression of Africa's irrepressible beauty, the free verse form of the poem also suggests that Africa is a free, independent continent with its own unique character unlike any other.

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